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Sunday 08/02/09

7:00 AM IFC
Don (2006 IND): This week's IFC Bollywood treat features matinee idol Shahrukh Khan as Vijay, an ordinary Mumbai Joe corralled into the job of masquerading as a Mafioso by the local police. After the real "Don" is captured by the fuzz, police detective Desilva (Boman Irani) assigns lookalike Vijay to take his place on the streets in order to infiltrate and destroy the drug smuggling empire of main man Singhania (Rajesh Khattar). A remake of a popular 1978 policier which I haven't seen, Don also features the great Om Puri as one of Desilva's fellow officers.

7:30 PM Fox Movie Channel
Barton Fink (1991 USA): Coen Brothers' fans seem to run hot or cold on this one, but it's definitely amongst my Coen favorites. It's a claustrophobic look at an earnest young man (John Turturro) who comes to Hollywood to write screenplays, only to find out that his artistic integrity doesn't jibe well with big studio politics. There's a marvelous subplot revolving around a traveling salesman with a big secret (Coen regular John Goodman) and a thinly disguised tribute to novelist William Faulkner, who had some similarly unfortunate real-life experiences in Tinsel Town. As usual, cinematographer Roger Deakins' work is exemplary, and the film's art direction and set decoration are superb, with Fink's hotel room oozing drafty 1930s ambience. Barton Fink gets the widescreen treatment this evening on Fox.

10:30 PM Flix
Bikini Shop (1986 USA): I've never seen this T & A comedy, but any (non-porno) film entitled "Bikini Shop" is going to get at least a brief mention in the TiVoPlex. Bruce Greenwood (most recently seen as a grizzled Star Fleet veteran in 2009's Star Trek) plays a guy who inherits the tit-ular business from his mother. Will business ba-zoom now that a younger man is in charge? Or will he decide to say ta-ta to the whole thing? Tune in and try it on for size.

11:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Secret Mission (1942 GB): James Mason stars as a Frenchman in this silly World War II time-killer written by future Bond director Terence Young. Mason plays Raoul, a French soldier on a mission with three Brits - including super spy Peter Garnett (Hugh Williams) - to occupied Normandy. The assignment: scope out the German defenses, presumably in anticipation of an Allied invasion from across the English Channel. How on Earth was D-Day kept a secret when second features were being made about it two years prior to the actual event? This very minor quota quickie also features Walter Gotell, Herbert Lom (write a book, Herbert!), and Stewart Granger. It's followed at 1:15 AM on 8/3 by 1943's They Met in the Dark, a superior Mason vehicle about a Royal Navy officer compelled to redeem his good name after being played for a sucker by a Nazi operative (Patricia Medina).

Monday 08/03/09

3:40 AM Encore Action
Von Richtofen and Brown (1971 USA): The penultimate directorial effort of Roger Corman, Von Richtofen and Brown is an uncharacteristically stuffy drama about the flying exploits of the aforementioned Great War aerialists. John Phillip Law plays the glamorous German ace, whilst Don Stroud portrays comparatively bland Canadian fighter pilot Roy Brown, and the cast also includes Barry Primus as Hermann Goering! Though well-shot and featuring some impressive aerial photography, Von Richtofen and Brown isn't terribly exciting, but hasn't been seen much of late on the small screen. Or the big one, for that matter.

7:30 PM Sundance
Crossing the Line (2006 GB): In 1962, an American soldier stationed in South Korea crossed over the demilitarized zone and defected to the communist North. That man was James Dresnok, and he opens up for British filmmaker Daniel Gordon in this utterly compelling documentary about one of the few westerners to willingly reside in the Democratic People's Republic. This is Gordon's third film about North Korea - he also directed the equally fascinating World Cup doc, The Game of Their Lives - and we should be most grateful that Kim Jong-Il's government has, bizarrely, granted him such unprecedented access to the Hermit Kingdom.

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